The Cheyenne Indian Reservation

When Alva came to live with Monroe & Sarah DAVIS
they lived on the Cheyenne Indian Reservation in
western Oklahoma. She was quite a novelty, as the
Indian women had never seen a white baby before and
they used to come sit and laugh when Sarah bathed her.
Two chiefs, STANDING BEAR and OLD BULL BEAR used
to come give Alva pony rides. OLD BULL BEAR was a
very famous chief of the Dog Soldier Society and
was at the peace conference that General GA CUSTER
attended. It is said, he offered 3 ponies for Alva
but of coarse Monroe refused the offer.

Monroe & Sarah apparently earned the deep respect
of the Indians, something that was basically unheard
of at that time. When the Indians came around at
supper time, Sarah always made extra, and when the
family finished eating, she invited the Indians in.
When the Indians received their allotments, from
the Federal Government, the women would receive
bolts of material. None of them were seamstresses
so they always gave the material to Sarah who was
quite an accomplished seamstress. She made all her
own clothes and those for Alva as she grew up.
One time, the Indians played a joke on Monroe and
Sarah. They were leaving to get their government
allotments and Sarah had left Alva under the shade
of a tree, on a blanket. Chief Standing Bear or
Bull Bear saw her there, picked her up and put her
in one of the wagons. When Sarah came to check
on the child, she found her gone and panicked.
She screamed for Monroe who was out in the field.
He came running and Sarah told him what happened.
Monroe jumped on his horse and took off racing after
the Indians. When he caught up to them, the Chief
feigned, then seeing the dismay on his friend’s face,
the Chief started laughing. They brought Alva out
of the wagon and gave her back to Monroe. The
Indians thought it was really funny, but Monroe was
not a bit happy, though he did not make an issue
out of it. He didn’t want to spoil the friendly
relationship he had with the Cheyenne.

When Alva was approximately five years old, Monroe
bought a violin from an old man who used it for barn
dances. The violin was quite old at that time, but
Alva learned to play fairly well with it.
Alva became good friends with an Indian girl on the
Cheyenne Reservation; she was the daughter of OLD
CHIEF BULL BEAR. The Indian girl was sent back East
to school (probably Carlisle) and upon finishing
her education, she returned to the reservation.
While gone, her system became used to eating white
man’s food and proper hygiene in food preparation.
When she returned to a life where there was no
refrigeration, and dog as well as other unclean
animals were eaten and very poor hygiene, the
Indian girl became sick and died.
At that time, the plains Indians buried their dead
on scaffolds and of coarse the bodies were eaten by
scavengers and carrion. This time however, the girl
was placed in a coffin and then placed in a tree.
The Indians believed that the height of scaffolds
or trees gave a closer distance to travel to get
to their heaven. Monroe made the coffin and Alva
commented on the beautiful doe-skin dress that Sarah
had made, which the Indian girl wore in the coffin.

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